Make Your Point: PRECOCIOUS

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PRECOCIOUS

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

pronounce PRECOCIOUS:

pruh KO shuss

connect this word to others:

Did anyone else originally learn the word precocious from the movie Mary Poppins? It's in a song:

It's "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."
Even though the sound of it is something quite atrocious,
If you say it loud enough you'll always sound precocious:
"Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."

I'm delighted to report, by the way, that dictionaries recognize the word supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and define it as "fantastic or fabulous."

Precocious is a fantastic word, too. It literally means "having ripened early," and it's related to lots of words about ripening and cooking, like cook, cuisine, kiln, culinary, ricotta, and c____ct ("to cook with many ingredients, or to create or invent by planning out many parts or steps").

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

The word "precocious" traces back to the Latin praecox, meaning "maturing early." (Prae means "early or before," and the rest traces back to coquere, "to mature, to ripen, or to cook.")

We've used "precocious" in English since the 1600s, first to describe trees and fruits that reach maturity early, and then to describe things that happen too soon or too early.

Today, we almost always use it to describe children (and children's behavior and accomplishments) that are surprisingly mature or advanced for their young age.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Adjective: "a precocious child;" "Matilda is precocious."

Other forms:

The adverb is "precociously."

And the noun is "precocity" (or, if you prefer, "precociousness").

how to use it:

Pick the formal, common, positive word "precocious" when you want to describe a young child whose intellect or ability is so well-developed that it startles you.

For example, a three-year-old child who reads fluently, like an adult, is precocious. Blaise Pascal was mathematically precocious: he published a treatise on conic sections at the age of sixteen. Mozart was musically precocious: he performed on the piano and wrote his own songs as a very young child.

But a child doesn't have to be a prodigy like Mozart to be precocious. Precocious children can simply have adult-level skills: they might plan and cook an entire meal for the family, or read other people's emotions accurately in a complex social situation, or respond calmly and effectively in an emergency.

examples:

"She was smiling the smile of a precocious child who knew she had said the right thing."
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun, 2006

"'Now, first week we're going to work like bedamned but we won't stick up our hands. So she'll call on us and we'll know. That'll throw her. So the second week we won't work and we'll stick up our hands and she won't call on us. Third week we'll just sit quiet, and she won't ever know whether we got the answer or not. Pretty soon she'll let us alone. She isn't going to waste her time calling on somebody that knows...' Even though he may have tried, he could not conceal his cleverness. Adults were impressed with what seemed to them a precocious maturity, and they were a little frightened at it too."
— John Steinbeck, East of Eden, 1952

has this page helped you understand "precocious"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this term, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "precocious" without saying "wise beyond one's years" or "skilled beyond one's years."

try it out:

In the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, the narrator observes, "It was sad the way they were still babies of four and five years of age but so precocious about taking care of themselves."

The way this narrator uses the word "precocious" is a bit unusual. We usually call a child precocious, full stop. Less often, we say that children are precocious in one area—"precocious about taking care of themselves," or maybe "precocious in planning their own social events"—and not at all precocious in others.

Think back to your own childhood. Would you describe yourself as precocious in some specific way? If so, what did you do well at an early age that kids today can't seem to do?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for this month is "Spot the Sharper Image."

Which of the two items described below is a real one that you can order from the Sharper Image catalog, and which one did I invent? Scroll to the bottom to see which one is real!

Try this set today:

Item A: Mighty Carving Knife. "The Mighty Carving Knife is the powerful electric slicer that gives you the feel and precision of a chainsaw."

Item B: Pain-Relieving Toe Strengthener. "Builds strength, flexibility, and muscle tone. Includes 3 resistance bands to change the tension."

review this word:

1. The opposite of PRECOCIOUS is

A. RECKLESS.
B. LATE-BLOOMING.
C. STRAIGHT-FACED.

2. As Winifred Conkling explains in her book Votes for Women!, Elizabeth Cady Stanton was precocious: as a teenager, she liked to _____.

A. help her parents rescue injured animals
B. debate with law students and cream them in chess
C. smoke expensive cigars and hang around with crooked men

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.

I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PRECOCIOUS Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.

Subscribe to "Make Your Point" for a daily vocabulary boost.

Make Your Point > Archived Issues > PRECOCIOUS

Send Make Your Point issues straight to your inbox.